Big Bay Boom fireworks show preparations

On four large barges floating at the Pacific Tugboat Services yard in the shadow of the Coronado Bay Bridge, pyrotechnicians from the Garden State Fireworks company are assembling some 15,000 individual fireworks for their Fourth of July Big Bay Boom fireworks show on San Diego Bay. The barges will be placed strategically around the bay, as well as on the Imperial Beach Pier, for the 24 minute show.

The biggest rounds, 10 inches in diameter, are shot from steel tubes set in sand inside of large trash cans.
— John Gibbins / John Gibbins/Union-Tribune

Pyrotechnic supervisor Nelson Alfaro removed a portion of a firework that will explode as a heart. The part that he is taking off will make the firework not leave a telltale trail at launch and will be a suprise to ...
— John Gibbins / John Gibbins/Union-Tribune

At the Pacific Tugboat Services yard at the foot of Cesar Chavez Parkway in Barrio Logan, some 15,000 individual firework charges are being assembled on barges for the San Diego Big Bay Fireworks display for the Fourth of July by ...
— John Gibbins / John Gibbins/Union-Tribune

Pyrotechnic worker Ramsey Pope linked string of fireworks together into a module that will be controlled by a computerized script that will control the launch sequence.
— John Gibbins / John Gibbins/Union-Tribune

At the Pacific Tugboat Services yard at the foot of Cesar Chavez Parkway in Barrio Logan, some 15,000 individual firework charges are being assembled on barges for the San Diego Big Bay Boom Fireworks display for the Fourth of July ...
— John Gibbins / John Gibbins/Union-Tribune